Family members of a fallen soldier place flowers at the memorial ceremony at the National Guard Armory in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., on Sunday. / Charles Fox, AP

by Natalie DiBlasio, USA TODAY

by Natalie DiBlasio, USA TODAY

Cities and towns across the nation held parades and ceremonies to honor veterans of every branch of the service this weekend for the first Veterans Day since the last U.S. troops left Iraq in December 2011.

President Obama paid tribute Sunday at a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery to "the heroes over the generations who have served this country of ours with distinction."

Obama laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns, saying it was intended to "remember every servicemember who has ever worn our nation's uniform."

"No ceremony or parade, no hug or handshake is enough to truly honor that service," the president said.

Because Veterans Day fell on a Sunday, the federal government has designated Monday as the official holiday.

At 11:55 p.m. on Saturday night, veterans, family, friends and volunteers finished reading each of the 58,282 names of fallen servicemembers etched in the black-granite Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall.

On Sunday morning, the sun rose and thousands filed through the memorial before taking their seats to hear Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki deliver the keynote address marking the 30th anniversary of the memorial and the 50th anniversary of the start of the Vietnam War.

Frankie Esquilin, a Vietnam veteran from Bronx, N.Y., has come to almost every Veterans Day and Memorial Day at the Wall. "From Memorial Day to Veterans Day is about six months, so for us veterans, it's like going to Mecca every six months," he said.

Esquilin said he has noticed fewer veterans at each commemoration. "There are less us every year," he noted of a group of veterans that met at the Wall over the years and was planning to get together again. "There used to be 100 of us. Now I don't even think we have 30."

Among the weekend commemorations:

At the National Cemetery in Bourne, Mass., about 1,000 people planted 56,000 flags amid the cemetery's flat gravestones.

Storm-ravaged New York hosted the country's largest Veterans Day parade, with turnout sparse along portions of the 30-block route along Fifth Avenue.

Chicago's National Veterans Art Museum unveiled its latest exhibit, called "Welcome Home," as it celebrated its grand reopening in a new location.

In the Mojave Desert in California, veterans planned to resurrect a war memorial cross that was part of a 13-year legal battle over the separation of church and state.

Hundreds of people attended a Veterans Day parade Saturday in downtown Atlanta. "You've got to remember that today everyone in the military is strictly volunteer," said veteran Ronald McLendon, 73, of Kennesaw, Ga. "So there's a lot of guys getting out there, getting shot in Iraq and Afghanistan, that volunteered to be in the military."